Imperial Attack Base

With temperatures here in Winnipeg hovering around -25C it seems like a great time to showcase another of the fantastic Hoth-themed playsets from The Empire Strikes Back. This time it's the turn of the Imperial Attack Base.

I always wondered why the playset was called the "Imperial Attack Base" when it would have made so much more sense to theme it as a "Rebel Snow Bunker" or something like that. The Rebels were the guys who dug all those trenches around their base, set up defence turrets, etc. so why wouldn't Kenner have brought this toy out as part of the Rebel defences? All we saw of the Imperials in the Hoth assault was giant walkers and snowtroopers flooding into Echo Base. It didn't seem like the Imperials would have had the time or inclination to set up "Attack Bases" with a certain Dark Lord so eager to Force-choke anybody who didn't step to it with sufficient alacrity. But Imperial Attack Base it is, nonetheless...

Lots of play features in this set. Action levers, land mine, snow bridge, command post and cannon!

Box sides illustrate some play scenarios...

The dreaded "Laser machine gun"! (sic)

"Heavy Laser", sure. "Laser Cannon", makes sense. But "Laser machine gun"???

And here we see a snowtrooper about to step on a land mine presumably laid by his own side, in their own Attack Base. No wonder the Rebels all escaped Hoth...

Blow the roof off that bridge!

Cool production still of a snowtrooper with a tri-pod laser cannon.

Now on to the fun part, setting up the tableaux! Here we re-create the box front with Vader and his snowtrooper squad preparing to repel the Rebel cavalry led by Han and Chewie.

"Laser machine gun" brought into action.

"Pretend you detonate the snow bridge!"

Box side photo - two snowtroopers about to beat a retreat in the face of the Rebel assault???

Command post blows sky-high.

Some close-up shots of the toy's details. Just some great sculpting apparent in the snow textures here.

The business end of the LMG.

Defending the Base.

Vader stands out a bit against the snow, no? Maybe a white cape would have been a better choice, just this once.

Detail of the snow bridge.

The command post. Note two roof pieces that fit on top.

Assembled toy.

The toy with all of its component parts: base, command post structure and two roof pieces, snow wall, two-part snow bridge, Laser machine gun. You'll find that many loose Attack Bases are missing one or more of these pieces - the roof parts to the command post can be especially tough to find.

Copyright info on the bottom of the base. Note reference to "Lucas Film Ltd" and "Rev 10". Unlike parts like the bases from the Land of the Jawas playset, the Creature Cantina playset, and the Droid Factory, though, the Attack Base parts were not re-used in other released toys.

Handy instructions for assembling and using the action features on your Attack Base :-)

The Imperial Attack Base has to be one of the most feature-packed playsets released in the ESB wave and I'm happy to have a complete one in nice shape. I still think it a shame that the movie connection wasn't made stronger by branding this as a "Rebel Defence Base" or similar, though - just imagine how cool the box art might have been. By this time the Kenner packaging designers were losing their inhibitions about limiting illustrations to collections that kids might realistically have had - witness the five snowtroopers, four Rebel soldiers and two Tauntauns here. How cool would it have been to see a box front with swarms of attacking snowtroopers and an AT-AT or AT-ST or two!

Grubee's Star Wars Tumblers

Some flea market finds to post today... four (two sets of two each) collectible tumblers and a very nice Luke ("farmboy").

I never thought I'd find these tumblers but never say never! They were giveaways produced for a Winnipeg burger joint called "Grubee's".

Grubee's was one of the many restaurant creations of Oscar Grubert, a Jewish kid from the tough North End of the city who grew up to be a lawyer and later, restaurant entrepreneur extraordinaire. For any Manitobans who remember the '70s, Grubert is the reason you might know Kentucky Fried Chicken as "Champs", for it was Grubert who brought the KFC brand to Manitoba as "Champ's Chicken".
 

Grubert was also the man behind such well-known local eateries as Mama Trossi's, Thomas Button's, G. Willaker's, and of course Mother Tucker's Food Experience. He also dabbled in nightclubs (Strawberries and Blue Jeans Cabaret) and concert promotion. Quite the impresario!

Grubee's was a burger joint as noted in the contemporary newspaper ad shown above. Apparently there were five locations but none of my long-time resident Winnipeg buddies can remember them. However, a co-worker of my wife's remembers being taken there on a date, and that would've been in the early '80s. But there haven't been any Grubee's around here for a long time... a long time :-)

Anyway, the cups are certainly rare finds and it's tough even to find pictures of them on the Internet... even the vaunted Star Wars Collectors Archive, while maintaining an entry for the items, doesn't host any pics. I'll send these to them and perhaps they'll make it online.

In any event, I feel pretty fortunate to have found two sets in near-mint condition for a very fair price, and a really nice Luke as well. If you want to read more about the remarkable Oscar Grubert, his obituary is here.

EDIT: After appearing on The Vintage Rebellion podcast, I was contacted by a collector who noted that the illustrations on the cups were also used in Canada by Coca-Cola for marketing their bottle cap promotion. The illustrations (in colour) appeared on the associated bottle neck hanger, counter-top promo piece, and poster. Cheers to Jonathan M. for that information. I also understand that he was the person who originally scanned the ad above and put it on the Internet, so thanks for that too!

Takagi "Elfin Knights" Blade Runner Blaster Water Pistol

Okay, I'm banking on a little fandom cross-pollination here. I've posted before about ALIEN toys but at least there was a Kenner connection in common, back in the day. With Blade Runner there's a similar degree of separation - Harrison Ford starred in both movies :-)

So, assuming you're still tuned in, I'd like to introduce a small project - a repaint of the world's most awesome water pistol - Deckard's blaster from the original Blade Runner!

The story of the BR blaster has been told many places - the original prop was an unholy union between a Charter Arms .44 cal. Bulldog revolver and a Steyr-Mannlicher .22 cal rifle with some extra greeblies and LED lights sprinkled to taste. Long thought lost, the original prop resurfaced in 2006 at a fan convention called WorldCon. In the meantime, several prop makers had turned their skills to producing more-or-less accurate replicas of the blaster based on screen caps from the movie. However, the emergence of the "WorldCon Blaster" in detailed photos has lead to more definitive replicas being produced, one of the most popular being made in Japan by Tomenosuke and retailing for nearly $1,000.

photo: eBay

I'd always wanted to have a BR blaster of my own but $1K is just too much. Enter the Takagi "Elfin Knights Project" M2019 water blaster! Injection molded in translucent black and amber plastic, it's an amazingly faithful replica of the film blaster, at a knockdown price.

 However faithful it looks, though, a plastic water gun is never going to have the have the heft of a full metal (or even resin) prop. I fixed this by plugging the holes in the molding and filling it brimful with clean sand - weight is now over 800 grams or almost two pounds. I then masked off the grips and primed the piece with satin black spraypaint.

After priming, I painted the upper receiver and triggerguard with a dark metal colour and the buttplate with a lighter metal. The rest was carefully weathered, mostly with a sponge technique, concentrating on the parts that would contact the holster or hand of the user. I glued two metal BBs on each side of the piece to represent the red LEDs, and painted them as well as the green LEDs with acrylic paint, finished with a gloss coat.

Lastly, I had my friend Byron of Northern Lights build me a fantastic clear acrylic stand for the prop. This will look pretty cool in my collecting room - although after having painted this one, I'm thinking of buying a resin kit to do up with working LEDs... crazy? who knows.

That's it for now, and all there is left to say is "have a better one!" :-)

Turret/Probot Playset

You may not have guessed this, but there is an aspect of the Turret/Probot playset that is the subject of some controversy. The debate apparently centres around whether the "Probot" is really an action figure and should be included in a "loose figure run". Personally, I think that figures that are part of a playset, like Jabba the Hutt or the Dianoga, shouldn't be included as part of a loose run. Perhaps there's a clue from Kenner...

AHA! "Action Figures Sold Separately"! I guess we can definitively say that the Probot isn't an "action figure" then... although I doubt this will convince the die hards on the other side of the debate. Like student politics, "people are so passionate about the issue because the stakes are so low."

In any case, on to the playset... one of the earliest in the ESB line with a copyright date of 1979, the T/P Playset consists of four main parts - the base, turret bottom, turret top, and Probot figure.

There was even some "action" in this playset too - as shown above, kids could move a lever to shake the rod precariously supporting the Probot, tipping it off. "I didn't hit it that hard, musta had a self-destruct."

Some great play features shown here.

Plus a movie still on the end flaps!

Here we go with the live tableau! As I've noted before, the farther we get into the range, the more extravagant the box-art play scenarios get in terms of toys. Here we've got Han Hoth, four Rebel Soldiers, Darth Vader, and five Snowtroopers!

Here are some close-up looks at the box side images. Probot vanguards the Imperial assault.

Rebel Soldier sneaks into the turret.

Peeking out the turret hatch.

I hadn't noticed this before, but the box art shows Han with a "Bespin blaster" rather than his traditional smuggler piece. The main box art picture has him with this different gun as well.

Copyright notice is the most detailed one I've blogged yet: "(C) CPG PRODUCTS CORP / BY ITS DIVISION KENNER / PRODUCTS / CINCINNATI OHIO 45202 / CAT. NO. 38830 / CAV. NO. ONE 722001 / (C) LUCAS FILM / LTD. L.F.L. 1979 / REV. 11"

Lots to unpack there... notably the "REV. 11" notation (revision number 11?). Presumably this is the only revision to make it into production but I'd be curious to see if any readers have a T/P playset with a different revision. Also, "LUCAS FILM" as two words!

To sum this one up, I really like the playset. Mine has a remnant price sticker on it of "$10.97" and I reckon that the value was there for kids. Whether re-enacting the first encounter with the Probot, the all-out Imperial assault on Echo Base, or some other Hoth scenario that took place off-screen (a remote Rebel outpost attacked by a rogue Probot maybe?) this playset brings the goods. You can even use the Probot independent of the rest of the playset. Maybe Probot has landed on some other non-Ice Planet??

Make sure, though, that if you buy one, your Probot has the full complement of legs! They are detachable from the body and can be tough to find loose.

Till next time on the Ice Planet!